Roster Building XXVI: Picking Our Teeth Off The Ice

[Unsustainable]

so mikko dragging his feet, prevented us from getting Boeser

 

[User13452]

so mikko dragging his feet, prevented us from getting Boeser

That rumoured deal doesn’t make much sense if KK was in it but Mikko definitely didn’t help the situation

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Thatcher rumoured deal doesn’t make much sense if KK was in it but Mikko definitely didn’t help the situation

Yeah, I think it was more likely just an old-fashioned rental deal for picks and prospects. We had the cap space for Boeser at 50% retained after the Rantanen transaction went through.

 

[bleedgreen]

I don’t see us picking up any big name ufa forwards this summer. It’s clear what that lot wants and what they think of the Canes. They need to trade for forwards with term. I suspect the only ufa’s they’ll get will be the low to mid level guys they’ve gotten in the past. The ones a little more thankful to just land a decent contract.

We need an entire second line worth of top six forwards. At least one good RD, maybe a full reshaping of the D. A starting goalie. My first guess at the summer in terms of free agency is we get a goalie and defense, with an RBA guy or two up front. If we get someone who really dips into the salary cap space I think it’ll be via trade.

The interesting thing about the cap space is we don’t really have that many open spots. Robinson and Hall are likely re signed leaving only the Roslovic and Jost spots really open. Orlov and Burns leave on D but Nikishin presumably takes a spot. Anderson. That’s a lot of cap space for not that many holes in the lineup.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I don’t see us picking up any big name ufa forwards this summer. It’s clear what that lot wants and what they think of the Canes. They need to trade for forwards with term. I suspect the only ufa’s they’ll get will be the low to mid level guys they’ve gotten in the past. The ones a little more thankful to just land a decent contract.

We need an entire second line worth of top six forwards. At least one good RD, maybe a full reshaping of the D. A starting goalie. My first guess at the summer in terms of free agency is we get a goalie and defense, with an RBA guy or two up front. If we get someone who really dips into the salary cap space I think it’ll be via trade.

The interesting thing about the cap space is we don’t really have that many open spots. Robinson and Hall are likely re signed leaving only the Roslovic and Jost spots really open. Orlov and Burns leave on D but Nikishin presumably takes a spot. Anderson. That’s a lot of cap space for not that many holes in the lineup.

There's only one superstar-caliber guy left, and that's Marner (who likely stays in Toronto). I don't think the Canes have an image problem with players one ring down from the top of the chain (such as Ehlers or Boeser). Personally, if I was Tulsky, I would offer the moon in trade packages for both Barzal and Pettersson and see who bites. If no one bites, I would sign Duchene for high-dollar/short-term. I've said this before, but to me, Ehlers makes the most sense as a long-term investment in free agency because of the hand imbalance in our youth pool. Only Artamonov is a notable left-shot forward prospect in the system; Stankoven, Blake, Nadeau, and Unger Sorum are all right shots.

Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis
Ehlers-Duchene-Stankoven
Hall-Kotkaniemi-Blake
Martinook-Staal-Carrier
Jankowski

Slavin-Morrow
Nikishin-Chatfield
Gostisbehere-Walker

Gibson, Demko, or Andersen
Kochetkov

That's a Cup-worthy roster to me if Morrow pans out as Slavin's partner. If not, the Canes can make a blockbuster trade for a top RHD at the next deadline.

 

[htdoc]

I expect Marner to be the one big name that doesn’t take 8 year term and instead “believes in himself” enough that he takes a short term at crazy high AAV so that he can again hit UFA when the cap is much higher and sign another deal to maximize his $$$$…. If he signs a 3 year or 4 year deal for $15M+ and then hits free agency again in a couple years when the cap is 115m-120M+ and gets another short term contract for even higher than 15M+ then the net effect is that he signs for more than any of his Toronto guys and even more than Drai etc…. And makes a mockery of Rants deal in Dallas…. Marner has had a chip on his shoulder about money and being in control since his contract situation with Toronto early on..

I think Marner wants to stay in Toronto and also wants to get paid.. depending on the playoff run and his performance will dictate if he just uses other teams to drive up his price with Toronto or if he has to actually go out to UFA because Toronto will not pay him what he is holding out for…

 

[A Star is Burns]

Only since the Hornet trade, makes more sense than relegating one of Horvat, Barzal, Nelson to 3C.

I don't really consider him all that great at center

I don’t see us picking up any big name ufa forwards this summer. It’s clear what that lot wants and what they think of the Canes. They need to trade for forwards with term. I suspect the only ufa’s they’ll get will be the low to mid level guys they’ve gotten in the past. The ones a little more thankful to just land a decent contract.

We need an entire second line worth of top six forwards. At least one good RD, maybe a full reshaping of the D. A starting goalie. My first guess at the summer in terms of free agency is we get a goalie and defense, with an RBA guy or two up front. If we get someone who really dips into the salary cap space I think it’ll be via trade.

The interesting thing about the cap space is we don’t really have that many open spots. Robinson and Hall are likely re signed leaving only the Roslovic and Jost spots really open. Orlov and Burns leave on D but Nikishin presumably takes a spot. Anderson. That’s a lot of cap space for not that many holes in the lineup.

I agree mostly about the free agents, though I think they'll target a handful of the higher end ones if they can. I've been saying I think they go with people like they did the year of Burns and Patches. If other teams want to get rid of good, expensive players to make their mistakes in free agency or because they're rebuilding, we'll be there. I'm thinking guys like Karlsson, Pettersson, Dougie, Bobrovsky, Panarin types. And aside from those, maybe trade for some good RFA types that another team doesn't want to pay with the rising cap. I think especially on D, they won't be afraid to move out a guy or two if it makes sense based on the talent they can acquire.

 

[bleedgreen]

I don't really consider him all that great at center

I agree mostly about the free agents, though I think they'll target a handful of the higher end ones if they can. I've been saying I think they go with people like they did the year of Burns and Patches. If other teams want to get rid of good, expensive players to make their mistakes in free agency or because they're rebuilding, we'll be there. I'm thinking guys like Karlsson, Pettersson, Dougie, Bobrovsky, Panarin types. And aside from those, maybe trade for some good RFA types that another team doesn't want to pay with the rising cap. I think especially on D, they won't be afraid to move out a guy or two if it makes sense based on the talent they can acquire.

Yeah that’s what I’m saying when I said we need to trade for term. Those guys you mention are the types I think we’ll be in on. My post was about ufa’s probably not taking up the cap space so talking about Marner and those types is probably the wrong direction.

I could see us going after Karlsson or anyone we think can fill that RD role next to Slavin. I don’t know that I think he’s the fix but he’s a pp guy obviously.

 

[Sigurd]

There's only one superstar-caliber guy left, and that's Marner (who likely stays in Toronto). I don't think the Canes have an image problem with players one ring down from the top of the chain (such as Ehlers or Boeser). Personally, if I was Tulsky, I would offer the moon in trade packages for both Barzal and Pettersson and see who bites. If no one bites, I would sign Duchene for high-dollar/short-term. I've said this before, but to me, Ehlers makes the most sense as a long-term investment in free agency because of the hand imbalance in our youth pool. Only Artamonov is a notable left-shot forward prospect in the system; Stankoven, Blake, Nadeau, and Unger Sorum are all right shots.

Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis
Ehlers-Duchene-Stankoven
Hall-Kotkaniemi-Blake
Martinook-Staal-Carrier
Jankowski

Slavin-Morrow
Nikishin-Chatfield
Gostisbehere-Walker

Gibson, Demko, or Andersen
Kochetkov

That's a Cup-worthy roster to me if Morrow pans out as Slavin's partner. If not, the Canes can make a blockbuster trade for a top RHD at the next deadline.

I'm not sure about Duchene as our 2C. I'd rather we FINALLY get a long term fix for the position (since he's 34) if we're gonna get somebody new, and if we are, either one of EP40, Barzal, or Benett would be good IMO. However, he would be a respectable stop gap measure for a couple of years until we then circle back to getting a new player as our 2C.

Either way, he'd be an improvement over what we have now as our 2C, but probably not for more than a couple of years due to age catching up to him.

Overall, I like your roster construction (even though Rod will probably never put Staal down to the 4th line).

 

[chaz4hockey]

Top free agent class for forwards is sparse. Going to need a trade to get top shelf players here.

If Isles are selling (which I don’t think they are) for a total revamp, why settle for Barzal, why not Horvat?

 

[Nikishin al Gaib]

In case you were wondering, Wysh is a prick, as are so many at ESPN